"AIR - Courting a Legend "

Last week I was fortunate enough to watch the press screening of "AIR - Courting a Legend ".

The biographical sports drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery. 

The film stars Matt Damon (Sonny Vaccaro), Ben Affleck (Phil Knight), Jason Bateman 

(marketing legend Rob Strasser), Viola Davis (Deloris Jordan, Michael's mother, which Jordan 

insisted on for the role), Chris Messina (David Falk - Jordan's Manager) and Chris Tucker 

(Howard White, today's vice-president of the Jordan brand). 

It's plot chronicles the origin of the Air Jordan shoeline and how Nike, Inc. employee Sonny 

Vaccaro goes above and beyond to strike a business deal with rookie basketball player 

Michael Jordan, building the company into the international shoe and athletic apparel giant it 

is today.

Now for those of you who might not know, I am a cineast and huge movie addict (I watch a 

minimum of 4 movies at home and visit the cinema at least once a week).

I did not watch the film with any expectations as seeing terribly shaped retro sneakers being 

placed as OG pieces in the trailer already and was worried about that lack of details in the 

rest of the movie, but apart from the missing OG shapes and models being used, I must say 

I was pleasantly surprised!

Viola, Matt and Jason play their parts beautifully and overall the storytelling keeps a nice 

dynamic. 

The movie is filled with fun facts and background information on the brand and the exceptional 

deal it's portraying, without even showing Michael's face once; so lots of great tidbits for those 

who have not spent the past quarter century reading up on the subject.

Also I noticed the film takes inspiration from famous sneaker movies that came before, as I 

believe I saw a little snippet from the 'Just for Kicks' graphics in the opening sequence.  

In addition there are tons of nods towards what was and what was to come in the Nike universe: 

Wheaties and Brillo boxes, a ton of the old Nike Posters designed by John Brown & Partners and 

some of Phil Knight's insane neon outfits are just a few of the many details I enjoyed spotting.

And for those who are checking the movie out of the sneaker bubble; it is still a very 

entertaining and informative piece about the complications of putting a price on passion 

and dedication and at the same time highlighting what an exceptional deal the Air Jordan line 

was for the athletes that followed;

A precedent for athlete's autonomy and sponsoring/testimonial contracts.

Over all some very enjoyable 118 minutes filled with fun facts and insights. 

A big thank you to André Langenfeld and Hilde Läufle from Rubi-Pr for the invitation!

The Archive Room

On Tuesday I spent a wonderful evening with Ernie at the size? x adidas panel talk in the 

saatchi gallery where currently the amazing 'Beyond the Streets' exhibition is being 

showcased.

We had the pleasure spending a short time almost by ourselves checking out the impressive 

collection and where in awe of the curation and mass of inedible rarities!

Ernie himself exhibited 32 pairs of his Adidas basketball collection, and I felt honored to see 

my SQ Rivalry amongst his selection.

After some last touch ups on his pairs, the displays where sealed and the doors opened.

At the following panel discussion we had the chance to speak about my favorite subject with 

f3lix and DJ Semtex - the socio-cultural background of various sneaker models.

A quick meet with Jason Coles and Thomas Turner was the icing on the cake.

A big thank you to Size? for this great short trip and to everyone who came out even though 

I hardly got to talk to most of my guest. Hope I see you again soon

All pictures after the jump

London, I am coming to the Archive Room

Join me this Tuesday at the Saatchi gallery from 7:30pm where size? will be partnering up with 

adidas originals and Beyond the Streets to bring you The Archive Room. 

There will be a footwear exhibition consisting of legendary vintage adidas basketball silhouettes plus a 

panel discussion with Ernie Beckmann, yours truly and Felix Young plus a special guest host.

Tickets are free, so click the link now to sign up. 

Saatchi Gallery

Duke of York’s HQ

Kings Road

London

SW3 4RY

What needs to change in Women's Sneaker Releases?

Thank you Sneaker Freaker for this feature and post!
For giving some female opinions a platform in an industry that tends to only show a tiny slice 
of everything that females are and strive to be.

Some great statements by these awesome women:

@imsimplyb @mimiplange @stephanie.endstate 

Read through the whole article here

Nike OTC Meeting 2023

After 3 years of COVID-related abstinence, last weekend the Nike OTC meeting finally took 

place in Shibuya again.
It's been a long wait, I was eager to see many familiar but also some new faces again, 

have some time to chat and nerd out about the models everyone brought and get my 

yearly dose of sneaker obscurities.
Unfortunately our dear Jumi was unable to join this year due to a knee injury, but Marseille 

was very well represented instead.

Because to the very long COVID break this year’s awesome theme was “good bye CORONA”

COLONA, the japanese pronunciation includes the numbers:

CO→5
LO→6
NA→7
so everyone was supposed to to bring models produced in 1975.76.77 or 1985.86.87.

Of course the Nike Air Jordan 1, Terminator and Dunk where heavily represented in every 

obscure way, but also a huge amount of 70s models were filling the shelves.

Apart from being able to spend some time with my dear Japanese sneaker crew I was 

overwhelmed with incredible presents, which made me feel like my birthday and Christmas 

came on the same day.

Ravanelli.konno surprised me with a beautiful original Salem Ewing t-shirt, Kunii-San sent 

me some Mita Forums, which where hand delivered by Chooee and I was super lucky to 

win an amazing bundle of vintage goodies from Nic at the raffle!

I will post these items as soon as I am back in Germany, but for now I am enjoying 

some time off in Koh Lanta, Thailand.

Thank you Nike OTC for your warm welcome, making great new memories and the precious 

time. 

A noteworthy special thank you goes to Smit/Shin-Ichiro, Yusuke and Toshiya-Towa for 

putting so much work and love into planning this perfect event!

All pictures after the jump